Linux basics - System startup process

Submitted by jinlusuh on Tue, 01/29/2008 - 08:14

Linux system startup process involves several important steps that Linux users need to know. This is vital in case of system boot up failure. By learning how Linux process start up, user can configure or at least know where to look for when troubleshooting a broken system.

When Linux system startup or bootup, init daemon (process) first read /etc/inittab file. Then, it runs /etc/rc.d/rc.S script. The program then will enable SWAP, mount file system, cleans up log directories, initializes PnP devices, load kernel modules and set up serial ports. After that, it runs 'Run level script' and 'Network Initialization', like the diagram below:

As you can see, Slackware linux run level is different from Fedora linux. If you want your slackware to boot directly into xwindow, use vi editor to change the default runlevel which is 3 to 4 (red font color):